Members of the Maine House of Representatives turn to the gallery to applaud emergency workers who responded to the Lewiston mass shootings of Oct. 25, 2023. The lawmakers made the gesture during their first session of 2024 in the State House in Augusta. Jan. 3, 2024. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star)
For Margaret Craven, there’s still a pang of grief every time she thinks about the night of Oct. 25 or she meets someone who’s loved one was among the 18 people killed in the state’s deadliest mass shooting.
“It will take forever, but we’re definitely on our way to moving forward,” said Craven, who represents the city of Lewiston in Maine’s House of Representatives.
A long-time advocate for gun safety measures and a Lewiston resident herself, Craven and the rest of Lewiston’s legislative delegation were dealt the task of stepping up as leaders in a moment of crisis while also tending to their own broken hearts.
Similarly, Peggy Rotundo, who represents Lewiston in the Maine Senate, said she believes it is the responsibility of the Maine Legislature to meet the needs of survivors, families, first responders and everyone else affected after such a tragedy.
But that responsibility, as Rotundo and Craven see it, doesn’t end — even a year later.
When the Maine Legislature reconvened just months after the shooting, funding for victims, mental health resources, and several gun reforms were assembled and passed. Both Rotundo and Craven praised the work the body was able to accomplish in the short time to provide support to the survivors and community. But they both acknowledge there is more to be done.
“We have to continue to remember and to honor those that we lost and their families,” Rotundo said. “We honor them by doing everything we can in our power as a Legislature to prevent a tragedy like this happening in any other community. And we have to commit ourselves to putting in place laws that protect the public safety of people in this state.”
Support despite short session constraints
A slew of gun safety measures were brought forward in the wake of the shooting by Democrats looking to enhance public safety, but only a couple managed to garner enough support to become law.
Rotundo sponsored the two bills that are now on the books in Maine. One of which was a multi-part bill proposed by Gov. Janet Mills that strengthened the state’s existing yellow flag law and bolstered mental health resources. The other established a 72-hour waiting period for firearm purchases.
Maine Sen. Peggy Rotundo (D-Lewiston) testifies before the Judiciary Committee on behalf of gun safety legislation introduced in the wake of the Lewiston mass shooting. (Courtesy of Peggy Rotundo)
The supplemental budget also included funding for a crisis center in Lewiston and other community-based mental health efforts, and established the Maine Mass Violence Care Fund. The $5 million fund will support victims by covering out-of-pocket expenses not covered by insurance that are connected to a mass violence event. While the gun reforms often dominated conversations, Assistant House Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier, who also represents Lewiston, told Maine Morning Star that she thinks this fund “will be of equal benefit, maybe greater” to the community.
While she would have liked to have seen greater investment in mental health resources and gun violence prevention, the measures that were successful marked “a good beginning,” Rotundo said, noting that the Legislature “did the best we could given the constraints of the budget, and the political reality of those who serve in the Legislature.”
Maine’s hunting tradition and strong Republican opposition made it hard to pass measures such as one that would have updated the state’s definition of machine gun, which was vetoed by Mills, a Democrat who has long been skeptical of large-scale gun reforms. Mills allowed the 72-hour waiting period to become law without her signature.
The Legislature’s enormous responsibility
Since 2007, Craven has advocated for stronger gun safety laws. Her efforts were originally driven by a desire to decrease suicide rates, but she has plans to push for legislation next session that she thinks could have been helpful in stopping Robert Card II, the perpetrator of the Lewiston shooting.
Specifically, Craven would like to see passage of an extreme risk protection order, or what’s commonly referred to as a red flag law, which gives families and law enforcement a tool to remove weapons from someone deemed a danger to themselves or others. One such bill was introduced late last session, but it ultimately died without making it to the House or Senate for a vote.
Card’s family approached law enforcement months before the shooting with concerns about his behavior and mental state and an independent review panel found that the state’s yellow flag law — the current mechanism for temporarily confiscating weapons from a person deemed to be a risk — should have been utilized. However, law enforcement never removed Card’s weapons.
Though she has termed out and will no longer be a legislator, Craven said she plans to collect signatures to encourage lawmakers to take up a red flag bill. She thinks if one had been in place, Card’s family may have been successful in intervening.
Rotundo is up for reelection, but plans to serve as she is running unopposed for her seat in Senate District 21.
While she is proud of the resilience she’s seen from her community, Rotundo said the Legislature has an “enormous responsibility” to keep the state safe and to continue aiding the healing process by providing financial support for victims of violence.
“We have a responsibility to do everything in our power to keep a tragedy like the one that happened on Oct. 25 from ever happening again in any community in the state of Maine,” she said.
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